Ex-police Chief Of Willow Springs Indicted

May 22, 1987|By William B. Crawford Jr. and John O`Brien.

Michael Corbitt was a small-town police chief, but there is nothing small time about allegations that he has been involved with extortion, an arson plot, a mob-linked businessman and other unsavory types.

Corbitt was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on charges of conspiracy to shake down an undercover FBI agent and helping to plan the firebombing of a tavern while police chief of Willow Springs, a southwest suburb with a population of about 4,000.

Other charges in the indictment accuse Corbitt of selling official Willow Springs police credentials, extorting $6,500 in free and discounted carpeting from a Posen merchant and extorting two handguns from a Lincolnwood businessman.

After Corbitt was indicted, he phoned Finley`s office with the news. He was suspended with pay from his $11,304-a-year job, said Peter Deuel, a spokesman for Finley.

Federal sources said Corbitt`s indictment was an offshoot of the federal Operation Safebet investigation of corruption in the Cook County sheriff`s office. Named in the indictment with Corbitt, but not charged, was Joseph Marren, a onetime strip joint manager who was previously convicted on Safebet charges.

According to the text of the indictment, Marren was connected to the alleged shakedown of the undercover agent. Marren previously was convicted of carrying bribe money to sheriff`s police officials and now is serving a six-year prison term.

The FBI agent was pretending to be a bookmaker seeking to set up shop in Willow Springs.

In the Safebet investigation, high-ranking sheriff`s investigators and others were convicted of taking payoffs to permit vice rings to operate in unincorporated areas of the county.

Corbitt was not implicated in Safebet. But federal officials reportedly received information about Corbitt as a result of his association with Safebet figures, including former sheriff`s Lt. James Keating, now serving a 15-year prison term. There have been reports that Keating is cooperating with federal prosecutors in hopes of reducing his sentence.

Wednesday`s indictment was based on information presented to the grand jury by Thomas Scorza, an assistant U.S. attorney.

Corbitt, of 1010 W. 87th St., Willow Springs, was charged with conspiring in May, 1982, to extort payoffs from Lary Damron, an undercover FBI agent pretending to be a bookie newly arrived in town.

Corbitt also was charged with conspiring with Raymond Gluszek and others in January, 1980, to destroy the Livery Tavern, 8270 S. Archer Ave., Willow Springs, to collect insurance proceeds. Corbitt allegedly received $7,000 worth of pinball machines for allowing Gluszek to destroy the tavern without fear of police interference, according to the indictment.

At a hearing later Wednesday, Corbitt pleaded innocent and was released on a personal recognizance bond. He was ordered to surrender a rifle and a pistol that he kept in his home. But he was allowed to keep a handgun because of threats against his life--over the objections of prosecutors, who argued that witnesses before the grand jury had told of being in fear of him.

Corbitt told the judge he had gained many enemies during his eight years as police chief, but Scorza said, ``Several persons have expressed fear of Mr. Corbitt and know of his violent behavior.``

During his tenure as police chief, Corbitt told of being a close friend and business associate of Joseph Testa, described bylaw enforcement officials as a businessman with mob connections.

The friendship was no mere boast. Court records show that after Testa was killed in Florida in June, 1981, by a bomb planted in his car, he left more than $100,000 and a pleasure boat to Corbitt from an estate valued at nearly $3 million.

Corbitt told investigators that he had hurried to Testa`s Florida bedside and arrived before Testa died.